Author Louise Erdrich speaks at Haskell about new novel, growth of Indigenous works

photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-WorldAward-winning novelist Louise Erdrich speaks at Haskell Indian Nations University on Saturday, October 12, 2024, to launch her new novel, “The Mighty Red.” Pulitzer Prize winning-author Louise Erdrich said it was her first job pulling sugar beets that inspired her to write her new novel “The Mighty Red.” As she worked in the fertile soil of the Red River Valley as a teenager, she could see change was coming. “It changed from a place where there were a lot of smaller farms into a place where the farms got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Erdrich told a full crowd at Haskell Indian Nations University on Saturday evening. Erdrich, who was visiting Haskell to launch the novel, said she wanted to write about her experience in the sugar beet fields and the rise of industrial farming that she’s witnessed over her lifetime in the Red River Valley — where she said sugar beet harvest trucks now dominate the roads and sugar factories dominate the landscape. She has...